My Godsends

Jon and Krista were great and braved a total of 4 hours on the subway to help me out on Sunday. We stopped at a dollar store in the subway station and got me some essentials that would be cheaper there than at Emart. Then we took the long 2 hour subway back to my hood.

Jon is great to have around because he speaks decent Korean. Krista might too, but Jon did most of the talking. They found a bus that would take me to Emart so we boarded and away we went. This was a different Emart than I went to on Friday night. This one was all one level and reminded me more of Walmart. It was really nice though and not that busy... until we got to the food section. I only lasted a few minutes before I had to get out. I already talked about my Emart visit in a previous post though so I won't go in to it again.

After Emart we came back and put stuff away and then went for some chicken at a near by restaurant. We had friend chicken (yes friend chicken, it's really common here.... it was way better than KFC) and these things called ColPops which are basically a cup with pop in it filled about 3/4 full and then this dish set inside. In the dish you could get anything from deep friend cheese balls, coconut shrimp, chicken, etc. Super unhealthy, but very good. You can't really get anything for one person at that restaurant but I could stop in and get a ColPop and be on my way (a ColPop is ~2,000Won...so pretty cheap.)

I can't stress how great Jon and Krista were. They really were my godsends my first weekend here. From trying to help me with the garbage/recycling thing (which I still don't know), to getting me some local takeout menus and translating them in English for me so that I can just go in and point until I learn some more Korea, to pointing out what different restaurants specialize in, to getting me a TMoney card (this is a card that you load up either at a convenience store or at the subway and you swipe it for the bus and subway... it's great and super handy). They really helped me feel a little bit better about being in such a foreign place. I really wish that they weren't so far away, 2 hours on the subway is a long time. Hopefully we can meet up in the middle a few times. They definitely won't be coming out here because my area sucks, but I may make a few trips out there (maybe even as soon as Halloween) over the year.